The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-07-27
A BICYLIsTs TRIP.
shomas Stevens, the Tourist I'm His Ram
bles About the Persian Capital--A
City Full of Medicants.

Breakfast at noon, and a stroll
through the top-maidau, or artillery
square, is proposed and accepted. The
thermometer, which registered % de-
grees above zero this morning at sun
rise, now registers 30 i'm the shade, and
the sun shines almost too warm TO be
comfortable. The ground has been
freezing at night and thawing again
during the day regularly since the
snow-storm OF week ago, and the
street we turn down is muddy.
Through the mud. however, are foot
paths trodden sufficiently hard and dry
by the broad-soled geivehs of hundreds
of pedestrians and the spreading feet of
strings of camels to enable us to pick
our way without much discomfort.
A hundred yards from the turning an
old and never-failing landmark of this
particular street-an old gentleman in
great round specs and semi-European
garb-is strolling leisurcly along the
beaten foot-track. Muddy though it be,
he wears undress slippers and snow
white socks, with fancifully embroider-
ed tops.
Queer old joker thatn' remarks my
companion.
Yes" / reply II have never hap
pened down this street, rain or shine,
dry or muddy, without seeing him
solemnly patrolling the same beat, eX-
tending back and forth for couple of
hundred yards. Who is hep"
.'Oh, he's an old Armenian-an in
dependent gentleman on small scale,
| suppose you'd call him; besides his
own house behind the wall here, he
owns half dozen others, enough to net
him an income of say ID tomans Co.
month; he spends his whole existence
in promenading back and forth along
this street in front of his house"
| happened to strike up sort of
casual acquaintance with this same old
gentleman soon after reaching Teheran.
| had ridden past him on the bicyle per-
haps dozen times, and each time he
stopped and stood motionless and
gazed at the bicycle with the expression
of man speechless with establishment.
Instead of the novelty wearing off rs the
sight become more familiar, rs one
would naturally imagine, he seemed
more stupefied with astonishment ut
each temperance than before. FINAL
" one day l happened to have occasion
TO dismount on his beat, and he took
advantage OF this to come up and salts
fy his curiosity.
In looking over the bicycle he cspied
the silver name plate, and, pointing
out the words Expert Columbia" ne
wanted to know if that was my name.
"No; that's the name of my machine"
| replied. Often since then / have
passed by when the old Armenian was
conversing with friend. and have
overheard the word Columbian" in
reference to the bicycle, as he explained
TO his friend who ! am; he had made
the very natural mistake of taking
Columbia for the common name of
my wheel instead of the proper. Hulk,
hukr' my right, my right, shouts
fredericksburg dervish thrusting his
polished gourd alms-holder out in
supplicating manner rs we pass him:
he was squatting in the warm sunshine
against the dead wall of mud-house,
and, seeing us approach, padded
through the mud to intercept us and
ask for aims "Booroo booroo" and
the dervish sinks back into sunshine
again, muttering "Allah-il-allah."
All down the street we have to run the
gantlet of 4 small army of medicants.
Besides the dervish are scores of others,
cripples who are compelled to bee or
starye, miserable wretches deserving of
pity, and usty, able-bodied vagsnts
who follow begging for profession,
because too lazy to work, or because
they find il to be more profitable. Many
of them are permanent fixtures in GER
tain spots from earl Y morning till after
dark; each of these have their own pc
culiar method OF appealing 10 the chart
ty of passers-by; they adopt Il certain
method of appeal, and under no circum-
stances do they vary from this self-im-
posed programme.
Almost all dervisheS at the commence
ment of their career of mendicancy
make eccentric vows of some kind To
the conditions of which they rigidly adj
here. On the left we pass a dervish
who made n VOW many years ago never
to apply comb or shears to his hair or
beard, and never to wash his face or
change his clothes. As may be well
imagined, there is nothing stylish about
his appearance. He looks more like q
wild man of the cave epoch than nine
teenth-century human. One morning /
strolled down this street and missed this
attractive specimen from his accus-
toned place. For several days he was
absent from his post. Was he i'll or
dead or gone away? l wondered But
no, the old fellow was soon found at his
post again, crying his "Huk, hukW at
passers-by as though no interval of alb
sence had occurred
about a month from now he will alb
sent himself for another week." says
my companions; Gin the course of
month or six weeks he saves few kerr
ans above the triile needed for his sup
port; he then retires to some quiet spot
and spends week in smoking opium
or bhang Qndian hemp and drinking
arrack. When his last shaki is spent he
reappears at his old post. looking pale
and haggard from the effects of his de-
bauch-that is, he would look pale if
You could see beneath the dirt Begging
and starving for month so rs to de-
bauch for week is the sum and sub
stance of his whole existence: some day
he will leave his post here and never
turn up again"
IAN overdose of opium. | suppose."